The Triforce Gathering
by Malon Aniku
Summary: Peach is forced by the Volunteer assosciation to manage a rock band for the upcoming Music Fest. Using her determination, the only thing she has, will she be able to convince three reluctant stars to perform for her?


AN: Hello, guys. This is my first (semi) one-shot fic... Or rather, three-shot. This doesn't mean I've quit typing on 'The Aftermath: After the Waker'. This may seem somewhat like a 'Legend of Zelda' appreciation fic to you, but I wouldn't have put it in this section if it was. I have nothing against Peach, either. I categorized this in 'Super Smash Bros.' for inter-game interaction rather than fighting. Of course, that's what most people do. Man, I'm a ditz. Well, read, review, and enjoy. It might take a while to get the next part up. ~  
  
The Triforce Gathering  
  
"Now, let's discuss the upcoming Music Festival," I had heard Slippy say. In fact, that was the only thing I heard. These Volunteer Bureau meetings were getting so incredibly boring that I was beginning to regret signing up. There were only about five of us there, anyway, and it wasn't like I had been planning on listening. I had one of those Rubik's cube key- chains on my purse, and I was trying to figure it out. Oh, cursed Rubik's cube key-chain? Why do you cause me such despair?  
  
I had been so involved in this that I didn't hear Slippy ask me if I wanted to arrange the entertainment. "Peach? Peach? Hey, Peach, do you want to have that job?!" I had been irritated.  
  
"Yeah, sure, whatever." I had snapped. Why am I so stupid?  
  
"All right then," the pond creature had said. "You'll have to arrange a band and tech team, and get us some new lyrics." Slippy was such a pithy speaker. My mouth dropped open.  
  
~*~ ^ ~*~  
^ ^  
  
I didn't sleep that well that night. Instead, I stayed up making flyers for the band auditions and pinned them up all over the break room and bulletin boards. I read the classifieds in the 32 Bit Post the rest of the evening. Mario was finally selling that old accordion, which I had had to force him to do, and someone was selling a fashionable bass drum. I suppose music was haunting me.  
  
Early the next morning, I stumbled into the empty break room café with coins in hand to buy myself a coffee. The cashier at that hour was a red-haired character called Malon, who I wasn't too familiar with because she was from the Zelda series, but we were a sort of friends nonetheless. She saw my disappointment and exhaustion, and made me keep my cash.  
  
"It's all right, hon," she said, pushing the small pile of coins back into my hands. "Looks like you needed that." She cocked her head. "What's the matter, Peach?" I rested my head in a hand and sighed into my coffee, watching the brown ripples crash into the sides of my Styrofoam cup.  
  
"I am such an idiot," I moaned. "I accidentally signed up to arrange entertainment for the Music Festival."  
  
"Oh, we all do stupid things every once in a while," she said, arranging yogurt and fruit in the buffet. She smiled slightly and straightened her old-fashioned apron. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"  
  
There was something about the Legend of Zelda characters- or Hylians, or whatever you call them- that was comforting in the same way that an old heirloom was. They were humble and down-to-earth, and they always knew how to ease you down somehow. This, of course, is used quite loosely, because lots of them (including Zelda herself) could be real hotheads as well, especially when one told jokes about their pointed ears (Yes, I have done it several times. Just try and delete me!). I didn't know Link too well. He was a conserved character, very few of words and to himself, and I didn't talk to him often.  
  
"I dunno..." I groaned, sipping my coffee absently. "Just tell everyone that the auditions are at five in the Metroid Auditorium, and I'll do the rest, I suppose."  
  
Malon clapped me on the shoulder and looked me eye to eye. "Will do. And if you still can't find anyone decent, well, let's just say that my game's very musically involved." I smiled up at her.  
  
"Thanks, Malon. You're a real life-saver."  
  
~*~ ^ ~*~  
^ ^  
  
The auditions began that evening.  
  
They were HORRIBLE!  
  
Ness was halfway through 'The Hungarian' on the piano when his music blew off the stand and he forgot the entire thing. Mario played something Italian on his stupid accordion (he evidently hadn't sold it yet; I didn't know a man as small as him could sing so loud and off tune). When Samus came walking up to the stage, I smacked myself in the forehead. She didn't have her trademark cyber outfit on, and she was dressed in jeans and a cowboy hat like a country singer, her yellow hair cascading over her shoulders. I didn't even have an idea what she actually looked like up until then.  
  
"Oh, no," I said, crossing her off my list so I wouldn't have to do it afterward. "Okay, Samus, what are you going to do?"  
  
"Peach, what's your problem?" she said, giving me a smile that would've been trademark had one been able to see it on usual occasions. "I'm gonna sing you a little somethin'." I closed my eyes and winced, and her country music came on over the intercom. I heard her grab the mike, hard. Surprisingly, she wasn't half bad. Her voice was sweet and sorrowful like the song, and filled the whole auditorium with a ringing of record-selling sound. My eyes eased open during her performance, and I still couldn't believe that it was Samus on stage. She had always seemed more techno-pop than country to me.  
  
"So? What'cha think?" she grinned when she had finished. I began rubbing the 'x' off of her name as I stared up at her in admiration.  
  
"Wow, Samus. I didn't know you sang," I said, impressed. "That was great. You're in!"  
  
"Great!" She must've been using whitening strips or something, because her teeth were as white as the 'M' on Mario's hat. "When is this performance gonna be, anyway?"  
  
"The Friday after next. Why?" I said, feeling quite satisfied with myself for finding my first band member. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard. But why did Samus have this look on her face?  
  
It was a disappointed, regretful frown.  
  
"Oh, no..." she moaned, shaking her head and shifting her weight uneasily.  
  
"What?" I snapped anxiously.  
  
"That's the day of the International Shooter Convention, and I'll be gone for weeks! I'm sorry, Peachey..." Samus grimaced. "I just... can't..."  
  
Something inside me shattered. Samus, looking very apologetic, left the stage to make way for Jigglypuff. I knew from experience what that thing would do, and immediately kicked her off the stage. Falco walked up and cleared his throat. By that, I mean that he sounded as if he were sick when he sang. Captain Falcon played a trumpet solo that made me feel deaf. Tiny Kong sang 'Amazing Grace', and then got very angry at Bowser next in line, who had made an obscene comment. She didn't sing half bad either, but it's sort of discouraging to see a she-monkey scold that stupid spike-head in primate curses.  
  
I could go on forever with my mishaps, but I think you get the point.  
  
That was the most embarrassing evening in my life, and, mind you, I've been around Nintendo for a very long time. I returned to my apartment near tears, and began running water to brush my teeth in. The water crashed into the pink-and-ivory sink, and I stared at it a moment. It... sounded different. I reached out and turned off the faucet. Yes, there was a sound drifting about my apartment. I strained my ears and realized that it was someone reciting poetry out loud, trying to put rhythm to it. Occasionally, he stopped, cursed himself, played a note on something, and began where he had ceased.  
What I heard sounded something like this, but much more muffled:  
  
"I recognize your gaze from somewhere/ the shape of your neck, the hue of your hair... My heart's gone wild... why can't I see/ the one who's taught these things to me? Things in the dark creep up from behind/ and always, I feel you at my side; your voice is so gentle, your words are so real/ why are you wearing the royal seal?" Then, the poet, who had become a singer sometime through the middle, paused and laughed. "Heh. 'Seal' and 'real'? What sort of rhyme is that?" This was followed by a note- a woodwind of some sort, I was sure- a shrill string of gibberish, a grunt, and continued again with a stifled sort of chorus. I was mesmerized with each word. "I'm riding in the wind with stardust in my eyes/ never before have I felt so much demise... but I'm strong, and with you here beside me I just know I'll make it through/ but my main problem's not that, IT'S THAT I KNOW YOU!"  
  
I decided that I needed to find whoever was singing this, so I found the source of the sound in my apartment. It came from an air vent, which I knew led directly to the gym storage room. I put on my slippers and, cautiously and quietly snuck through the dark hallway with my hand on the wall. I reached the room I was looking for, and tiptoed in. The person who I saw around the corner was at the bottom of my list of expectations. He looked up and hastily shoved a pad of paper behind his back, which was difficult since he was leaning against a wall and his shield was taking up most of the space.  
  
"Umm... Hi, Peach. Didn't expect to see you at this hour." The fairy at his shoulder murmured something shrill, and he slid a metallic blue ocarina into the front of his tunic.  
  
"Link?" I shook my head. "Whatever. I heard you up in my apartment and-"  
  
"Oh, was I keeping you up with my racket? I'm sorry... Navi told me I shouldn't have done it down here..." He bowed his head, but I saw the tips of his ears turn bright red. He looked back up at me and blushed harder upon seeing me in my bathrobe and bunny slippers. "This is highly embarrassing for the both of us, I assure you..."  
  
"Embarrassing? You shouldn't be embarrassed! I heard every word, and it was wonderful." I had a feeling that he would've blushed harder, had he anymore blood to spare.  
  
~*~  
  
A.N: I'm going to stop right here. I'm distracting myself from "The Aftermath". However, if I receive at least 5 reviews, I will type up the next part for you. Until then, see ya, folks! 


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